What is Passivhaus?

Passivhaus is a sustainable building design standard developed in Germany in the 1990s. It prioritises sustainability by focusing on reducing buildings’ energy usage through clever design strategies such as facing windows south for winter sunshine, or by insulating buildings strategically.

This means that a Passivhaus building uses so little energy that it tends to be generally unaffected by energy price shocks, or spikes in energy use due to heatwaves or cold snaps. Such a building design standard has become increasingly important, especially as we grapple with fuel poverty.

What's the story of Camden and Passivhaus?

Camden is home to London’s first ever Passivhaus building: a single-family home in Cricklewood completed in 2010. In the same year, Camden launched its ‘Community Investment Programme’, an initiative which aimed to invest in council-provided homes. In 2022, that programme was expanded with increased investment to deliver more social and affordable homes which are also energy-efficient.

In the meantime, 2013 saw Agar Grove, the UK’s largest Passivhaus housing scheme, obtain planning approval from Camden Council and in 2014, a 53-home Passivhaus development was completed in Highgate. Both were under Camden’s Community Investment Programme.

This has made Camden a hotbed for sustainable building design and indeed, Camden has many Passivhaus retrofit and new-build homes, including the home of pioneering engineer Max Fordham and Carlton Chapel House, a retrofit of a 1980s housing block – both of which are on this tour.

What about homes which aren't Passivhaus?

We will be walking past a lot of houses which are not built to Passivhaus standards. They will be poorly insulated, have leaky windows and exorbitant energy bills.

The UK's housing stock is the oldest in Europe. The Passivhaus standard and the buildings on this tour will hopefully encourage us to think about how we can take a first-principles approach to help our homes keep us comfortable, run cheaply, and address the climate crisis.

Golden Key Academy

The Golden Key Academy is a course training up insightful and engaging guides dedicated to explaining London and bringing its many stories to life. This tour is part of a wider collection of tours created by Golden Key Academy guides for the Open House Festival celebrating their conclusion of the eight month course.



Further information on the Golden Key Academy can be found here https://open-city.org.uk/golden-key-academy

If you would like to attend this tour, please ensure you have booked a ticket before turning up.